Arrieta hopes Monday is final rehab tuneup

By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com

CHICAGO -- Jake Arrieta, slowed this spring by tightness in his right shoulder, will make another rehab start on Monday for Class A Daytona, and he hopes that is his last tuneup before he's ready to rejoin the Cubs.

Arrieta has made three rehab starts with Double-A Tennessee, but the Cubs are having him start for Daytona in hopes of finding some warmer weather.

In his last outing, Arrieta went 5 2/3 innings, and said he'd like to throw 100 pitches on Monday.

"I want to get out there and get up to 100 pitches and kind of fine tune and refine some things, and hopefully, that'll be the last stop," Arrieta said.

In his last outing, the Double-A Jackson team was swinging at just about everything Arrieta threw. He said he wants to work on throwing his cutter and changeup when he's behind in the count, something that will be necessary in the big leagues.

"There are some things I need to do better," Arrieta said. "I'm one step away from being really locked in, and it feels good."

What has also been encouraging is that his stamina and velocity are strong, with his fastball in the low- to mid-90s.

"I'm right where I need to be," he said.

Rizzo expects to play Sunday after early exit

CHICAGO -- Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo had to leave Saturday's game because of back spasms but did not expect to miss Sunday's series finale against the Reds.

"It just started barking on me in the fifth or sixth, and once we took the four-run lead, I [decided to] play with more caution than go up there, get another at-bat and go out on the field and hurt it even more," Rizzo said.

He was lifted defensively in the eighth inning, and Mike Olt moved from third to first.

Cubs manager Rick Renteria said Rizzo might have aggravated his back stretching for a high throw on a pickoff attempt.

"I felt it a little bit [Friday]," Rizzo said. "It'll probably be gone tomorrow or the next day. The play on the pickoff that was kind of high, that's when it started barking the most."

The first baseman expected to be a little sore on Sunday but didn't think it would keep him out of the lineup.

Cubs to celebrate Jackie with photography exhibit

CHICAGO -- The Cubs will celebrate Jackie Robinson Day on Monday at Wrigley Field.

The team is partnering with Ebony Magazine, which is making available vintage photographs of Robinson and other African American baseball legends. The photos will be on display at Wrigley Field in the Budweiser Bleacher Concourse during Monday night's game. The photos are from the Ebony Collections, the most sizable photo collection of the African American experience ever archived.

Jackie Robinson Day is recognized throughout Major League Baseball on April 15, the day Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The Cubs were on the road playing the Yankees at that time.

Joshua Mhoon, 10, of the Oak Park Mustangs, will throw out the first pitch Monday. Mhoon plays pitcher and first base for the Mustangs.

Extra bases

• Anthony Rizzo and pitcher Jeff Samardzija combined on three straight defensive plays in the seventh inning on Friday, and the first two were pretty impressive stops by the first baseman.

"I think we've seen enough out of Riz at first to know he's a premium first baseman defensively," Samardzija said. "I always need to be on my toes when the ball heads that way, because he plays deep and plays in the hole. We're kind of on the same page. I'd rather have him cover a lot of ground.

"We've made that play a lot of times," Samardzija said. "It's nice to have that over there. It's a nice commodity to have a first baseman who can pick it like Riz."

• Looking ahead to the Cubs' series against the Diamondbacks, Travis Wood will start Monday and Jason Hammel on Tuesday. Wood and Hammel had both pitched Wednesday in the Cubs' doubleheader against the Yankees.